- This cake is perfect for the holidays.
It's a gorgeous showstopper, great for a centerpiece.
Hi, my name is Hetal and today I'll be showing you
how to make Gulab Jamun Bundt cake.
I really wanted to make something
that's accessible and approachable
but at the same time something you can share
with your friends and family.
Traditionally Gulab Jamun is small little fried dough balls
that are made with milk fat.
And then, they're soaked in a syrup
that's flavored with cardamom, saffron,
a little bit of lime juice and rosewater and cinnamon.
The dough balls just soak it all in.
They're just super moist.
They're little bites of just goodness.
If you've been to any Indian restaurant,
it's the typical dessert that you find on the menu.
It is what every South Asian kid grew up eating.
Gulab Jamun in general, is something I love
but it's so difficult to make at home.
It's basically a cardamom pound cake
that you soak in traditional Gulab Jamun syrup.
And it has all the feelings and flavors of Gulab Jamun
that you would traditionally have.
Growing up, during Christmas, my family would get together.
And there's about 140 of us, there's so many of us.
I had one aunt, Mishodna Gakhi,
that made the most amazing Gulab Jamun.
She deep-fried them and put them in this syrup,
and then me and my cousin would slowly steal
a couple from the warm syrup.
And they just melted in your mouth.
I mean, I got in trouble a couple of times. (chuckling)
It just really reminds me of being with my family
during the holidays,
really enjoying the sweet moments in our lives.
Indian desserts have a really special place in our culture.
You enjoy sweets whenever there's a wedding, a baby shower,
your cricket team wins a match,
whatever it is, we find an excuse to have desserts.
It's also used to remind you of all the sweet moments
in your life, all the good times.
When you get married,
the first thing you feed each other are Indian sweets
to signify this sweet life
that you're about to start together.
Indian desserts particular to me,
hold a very special place in my heart.
Every memory I have of going to baby showers or weddings
or even just waiting outside the Indian grocery store
while my mom shopped, are associated with desserts.
It's a good way for me to like
kind of get back to that place.
When I moved away from home,
I found myself missing those moments
and wanting to recreate those flavors
just to bring back those memories.
So I decided what's the best way for me to get the texture,
the flavors and just the overall feeling of Gulab Jamun,
and I stumbled upon this amazing Bundt cake.
I definitely did not (chuckling) get it on the first try.
It took about 15 Bundt cakes
before I got to where I wanted it.
It was definitely trying to figure out
what's the right amount of syrup, what's too much syrup?
Should I ice it?
Getting a cake that was tender enough
but also had the same exact crumb
that a Gulab Jamun typically has,
it took a lot of trial and error,
a lot of playing with ratios,
and I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end.
The cake, I think, has a really nice balance,
that sweetness that you get with Gulab Jamun
but also just backing away from it a little,
so you can have a whole slice.
I have a three-year-old daughter
and I want her to be close to her culture.
I want her to grow up with the flavors I grew up with.
One of the things for me,
like why it was so important for me
to create desserts that were, in the end,
I had the flavors of my childhood
and my mom's childhood and so on,
is you know, when my grandmother passed away,
I could not get a lot of her recipes right.
I would try and it would never be as good as hers.
I wanted to create a cookbook for my daughter
so that when I'm long gone in the future,
she will be able to go back to this cookbook
and make exactly the things I made for her
and feel right at home.
Those are the things that I wish I had growing up,
and I'm happy and excited
to be able to provide that for her.
Nothing is measured.
It's just feel and intuition,
and everyone has a different intuition and feel.
I am so excited about how this cake turned out.
It looks beautiful,
it looks like it would be a gorgeous centerpiece
to any table.
It's wonderful warm
but it'll be fine even a couple of days later.
I can't wait to try it.
It smells so amazing right now.
It is so good.
I hope you guys enjoy it.
I hope you guys make it at home for your family and friends
and have a good time.
- [Man] Oh yes!